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is violated by the establishment of * any religious test of fitness for civil office . ** That they recommend to the congregations in connexion with them , to send up early in the next Session petitions to both Houses of Parliament , in consonance with the foregoing Resolutions , praying for the removal of all penalties and disabilities which , by the existing laws , are attached to the profession of any opinions on matters of religion . "
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Society for ^ the Abolition oj Human Sacrifices in India . We have heen requested to insert the Address and Regulations of a Society recently formed at Coventry for the Abolition of Human Sacrifices in India . Our limits will only allow the following extracts :
< These sacrifices are perpetrated by the Suttee ( the burning or burying alive of Hindoo widows ) , Infanticide , Cruelties to the Sick on the banks of the river Ganges , and Pilgrimages to various holy places . By the practice of the Suttee , hundreds of disconsolate widows ( some of them mere children ) are hurried to the funeral pile , and burnt with the remains of their husbands , a few hours after their decease .
Infanticide chiefly prevails in Guzerat , under the Bombay Presidency , and dooms numbers of infants to death at the very dawn of life . The cruelties to the sick are exercised on the banks of the Ganges , which is considered a goddess , and numberless victims of superstition are annually sacrificed . At the temple of Juggernaut in Orissa , Gya , and Allahabad , a tax is levied on the pilgrims , and multitudes are allured to these shrines of
idolatry , ( made more celebrated by British connexion with them , ) many of whom never survive the miseries of pilgrimage . How are * their sorrows multiplied that hasten after another god' 1 " The extent of these evils is very appalling . The number of Suttees in the Hcngal Presidency , from 1815 to 1824 , was as follows :
1815 378 1820 598 1816 442 1821 655 1817 707 1822 583 1818 839 1823 575 1819 650 1824 572 " Total , ii » ten years , 59 ( 7 widows burned or buried alive ! In the Madras
and Bombay Presidencies the ofhcutl statements for nearly the same period , 635 ; grand total 6632 . " No correct idea can be formed of
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the number of murders occasioned by Suttees , Infanticide , Cruelties to the Sick , &c . The late Rev . W . Ward , in his valuable work , * View of the History , Literature and Mythology of the Hindoos ? conjectures * the number of victims annually sacrificed on the altars of the Indian gods' as follows : — " * Widows burnt alive in all Hindostan .... 5000 Pilgrims perishing on the roads
and at holy places 4000 Persons drowning themselves in the Ganges , or buried or burnt alive « 500 Children immolated , including those of the Rajpoots 500 Sick persons , whose death is hastened on the banks of the Ganges 500
10 , 500 . ' ( Vol . II . p . 323 . ) c < That the British Government in India is able to abolish these murderous practices in its own dominions , appears from the testimony of many of its functionaries , given in the six volumes of Parliamentary Papers on Hindoo Immolations . An intelligent magistrate in
Calcutta observes , respecting the Suttees , * They will believe that we abhor the usage when we prohibit it in toto by an absolute and peremptory law . They have no idea that we might not do so with the most perfect safety . They conceive our power and our will to be commensurate . —Parl . Papers as above , Vol . II . p . 67 .
" Regulations of the Society . " I . Its designation shall be , ' The Society for promoting the Abolition of Human Sacrifices in India / " II . Its object is to circulate information respecting the nature and extent of human sacrifices in India , by the burning of Hindoo widows , infanticide , river murders , pilgrimages , &c . ; to awaken general attention to the subject ; and to promote the Speedy abolition or these horrible practices .
** III . The means by which this important object may be promoted are , procuring information upon the above Mihjects , circulating it among persons of influence in this country and in India , and originating petitions to Parliament from every part of Great Britain and Ireland .
" IV . Every person subscribing not less than 5 s . a year , shall be considered a member of this Society . ** V , Every member shall , on R }> pli-
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Intelligence . —Society for the Abolition of Human Sacrifices in India . 7 \
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 71, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/71/
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